Stakeholder-Driven and Sector-Coupling Business Models for Municipal Utilities in Rural Areas

The project develops innovative business models for municipal energy suppliers and distribution network operators to make surplus electricity from wind and solar locally usable.

A central component is the integration of hydrogen technologies: instead of exporting electricity at negative prices, it will be converted into hydrogen and stored locally.

Against this background, the project examines how decentralized and intelligent control of power grids, in combination with storage solutions and flexible consumers – such as heat pumps, electric vehicles, or electrolyzers – can be operated efficiently. Interdisciplinary subprojects analyze the technical, economic, legal, and political framework conditions. In the economic subproject, led by the Chair of Economic Policy and SME Research, the focus is on designing new business models and simulating energy networks based on them.

The goal is a transferable governance model that enables municipal utilities to make targeted investments and implement new business models. AGil thus creates the foundation for a sustainable, economically viable, and socially accepted energy transition – with hydrogen as the key to local value creation and supply security.